ABC news of ALL news has an inflammatory and sensationalistic story ...
"Ferret Attacks Infant" on their site. We need people, long time
owners, and especially experts (animal health care takers, shelters
operators, etc) to step up. If you do go to this site to comment (which
only takes about 90 seconds to register and post ... I timed it),
please make it factual and unemotional please. Not combative or equally
opinionated and skewed as this story. That is the way to fight these
things.

This is exactly why I tried so hard when this story first appeared
months ago to gather information for us all. All I wanted was simple
information about: the volume a typical pet ferret's stomach can hold
(wI mean typical pet ferrets who mostly eat kibble because in the large
scheme of things, ferrets are not given whole prey and those ferrets
seem to be able to hold larger food content as reported to me by
individuals), what the bite rates are in comparison to dogs and cats,
how damaging a ferrets bite is (the strength) as compared to a cat or
small dog, rabies transmission rates each year (and total historically
 ... compared to other pets), I needed SIMPLE answers. I know we
don't have "scientific" studies regarding these questions. But I
suspect there are individuals out there who have very good anecdotal
evidence/info about them. I was so disappointed that people with
some "credentials" behind their names (such as vets, scientists, any
professionals really) didn't step up for us before. Not one!

We all need a brief answers and be able to back up, at least a little,
of them. So that way we can easily, rotely, spew off a few facts to the
media whenever something like this occurs. A long winded offering of
info originating from private experience is not useless (when a number
of them are given), but not very effective. If we all are able to spit
out concrete information (have it easily memorized for emergencies so
that we can easily share it even when on the spot and stressed), that
consistency would be just as effective as the facts.

I did receive some help from many private owners in the past. I saved
that material for future use. It's very good information. But I
couldn't seem to manage to pull some direct info from it that we could
argue with. I did think it was very interesting that a few whole prey
feeders reported ferrets eating whole mice and could crunch up a
rabbit's skull. Very impressive. But is it typical?? Those people
were all also from abroad. Ever see a ferret from Europe? Those
ferrets don't' even look like the same animals as ours. They are
huge, powerful, alert, robust creatures compared to the American
ferret. If you open their mouths, it almost looks like there are two
balls blocking their throats ... pure jaw muscle. The typical, early
neutered, pet store ferret is nothing like those animals. However ...
it is very useful info to have nevertheless.

Here is the web page to visit if you'd like to offer a comment:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/exotic-animals-safe-pets/story?id=13867713

Wolfy
ps, wanted to say it would make us seem open minded and less defensive
if we ended statements during such times with how all pets should be
supervised around children, not just ferrets. Just to keep it balanced.
This article did seem to do a good job about that however.

[Posted in FML 7097]